I haven't hear of Aristocrat being infected, but I did buy some last year so I'll take a close look at them and include a sample for testing.

Ground Master has been added to the list. I spoke with Bill Meyer tonight and he saw them at a wholesale grower near him, along with Golden Tiara, both reported to be from DeVroomen.

Since we won't be buying anything from Holland next year, or very little, it will be more and more important for us to rely on the reports from people like Bill who have a chance to get out to these growers and check out the stock and see what is coming in or going out that is infected. I wish I could do more of that but just don't have time with all we do here. These reports are appreciated by all of us, and without Bill being as active as he is about this none of us would be as effective about getting the word out to the hosta community, so Thank You Bill!

Baby Bunting has been added to the list, just noticed it today. We purchased this batch from Darwin Plants in 2004. A couple may have been sold at the nursery last year in quart pots but we had been selling from a batch of Baby Bunting that we purchased from Darwin's in 2003. The ones left from 2003 still look okay but we'll send samples of them out for testing next week.

I'll get a picture of the Baby Bunting after the batteries are charged on my camera.

I was just informed about Virus X and did a little reading on it. If it does not harm the plant and/or kill the plant, do we really have to be so concerned? Has anyone had any experiences with the virus moving to other plants or losing Hostas because of this virus?

Yes, there are cases where the virus has moved from one plant to another. One member here had a Parhelion with the virus, and she didn't know how it caught it. The following year she discovered that her Sum & Substance had the virus. Because it can take 5 or more years for Sum & Substance to show symptoms, but will be contagious all that time, we are pretty sure her S & S had the virus all along and was passed on to the Parhelion. There are no known cases of virused Parhelion in the trade.

I am certain there are a lot of cases where the virus has spread and people don't even know it yet. And although it doesn't outright kill the plants they do have decreased vigor and of course look uglier and uglier, year after year. After a while every hosta could look identical...

Even though people might say that they have virused plants that they are careful about, the chance is too great. Moles and voles could come along and tunnel under the roots, cutting roots of plants as they go, and spread the virus that way. Hail could shread a virused plant and then cut leaves could come into contact with non-virused plants next to them. A vehicle or lawn mower could run over and shred leaves and then spread it to others. Or you might just want to get leaves for a flower arrangement, not even know that you have a virused plant, and go cutting and cutting and cutting, spreading the virus all along.

Obviously the main concern is with growers who are constanly cutting and handling plants, but it can spread in the home garden too. And with a very long incubation period from infection to symptoms it is just too risky.

I don't quite understand why anyone would knowingly keep or for that matter BUY a known virused plant and take that risk? And if there is a nursery owner SELLING a virused plant their USDA nursery stock license should be revoked. According to the license the nursery agrees to sell healthy, non-diseased plant stock. HVX is a disease, so nobody should ever be selling a known virused plant.

I hope that helps to clear it up a bit for you. If you have any other questions let me know.

Im totally new to hosta and the virus--I thought my katherine Lewis was a cool looking plant! i guess not!

CHRIS WROTE:
1) Katherine Lewis, in our quarantine house. We received very nice, large, multi-eyed plants from Holland this spring. This morning I just noticed the virus in one plant from this batch. It is the typical dark color bleed along the veins.

MINE CAME FROM HOLLAND AND I JUST DUG AND DISPOSED OF INFECTED PLANT have one more from this yr I will be watching closely!

****ALSO MY SUM AND SUBSTANCE HAD IT-THEY ARE NOW GONE TOO-I just put in my hosta garden last yr-I had transplanted S&S cuz it was my only huge one I own and now its gone

Add Lady Guinevere and Peedee Gold Flash to the list--both heavily virused in 2nd year tcs this spring, so plants from 2004 should be suspect as well. I've also seen one Winter Lightning that was virused, looked like a 2 year old plant. It had one solid colored leaf that was clearly infected.

Saw infected Stiletto, Royal Standard, and badly infected Golden Tiara at a local nursery yesterday. They must have been recent deliveries, because when I took the worst of the Golden Tiaras to the manager, he said his neighbor Warren Pollack (!) had been in recently and checked things over. I guess that means he knows about the problem.

Ground-level policing, I guess, is our best defense. I can't blame garden center owners too much for not being able to check every shipment that comes in this time of year, but I think they ought to be getting more suspicious of hosta shipments!

Chris, I think you need to add Wolverine to your list. Mine is outta here. It's showing speckles and bumps and maybe a little ink bleed. Also, the color seems off. It looks like it has a little frost damage, but I think the symptoms go beyond that. In any event, discretion is the better part of valor. I'd rather toss what has turned out to be a disappointing plant than endanger my others.

On the other hand... maybe it's bad karma. I'm a mile and a half from Ohio Stadium.

For your edification and amusement, let me know if photos or leaf samples would be helpful. Actually, I'm not sure how well pics will show the problem.

Bill

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. ~Lou Erickson

If you can take a picture or send me a leaf sample I sure would be willing to take a look, plus could add it to the group of pictures showing the symptoms in different plants. And if you have a picture tag that came with the plant when you bought it I might be able to ID the original wholesale source (can't do it if it was just a printed or hand written tag, though).

Since I haven't heard of any other infected Wolverine out there I don't want to add it to the list yet, but do if you know where the plant originated and we can pinpoint a source then we'll see. And if I hear of other cases and/or can track it down to a particular supplier then I'll know more if it is just a case of one infected plant or an infected wholesale batch.

The list on the original post has ben updated with a couple additions:

Abby, Veronica Lake, and Wolverine have been added to the possibly infected list. Abby was sold by a couple wholesalers from Holland in the past 2 to 3 years and this year many plants are being reported as having the virus. Veronica Lake purchased from Holland in 2005 are now showing signs of the virus. We had some and we had other reports as well. Wolverine was sold from Holland but an unknown, mislabeled plant was mixed in, and the mislabeled plant was virused. So we do not know if there are actual Wolverine with the virus, but since some unknown, virused plants were sold as Wolverine we posted the warning.

Next, Halcyon and So Sweet have been moved to the high rate of infection listing. We can no longer recommend either of those plants. So Sweet has been virused for years and this is one plant that has been confirmed to have been sold infected as domestic tissue cultured plants. Every So Sweet I've seen for sale at the mass marketing stores has been infected for the past couple years.

Halcyon has been added to the list because many plants out there are testing positive for the virus, but Halcyon will take years to show symptoms, if they show anything at all. For this reason we no longer recommend buying Halcyon. If you are a hosta seller you should get your Halcyons tested for HVX to make sure you are not selling virused plants since they are not and may not ever show symptoms.

I've seen many, many other plants with HVX, but these are the only ones were we've seen confirmed cases of HVX infected plants sold at the wholesale level or being sold at nurseries in large numbers. Scores of other plants have been seen with the virus but these cases appear to be garden infected plants.

Unfortunately we are getting to the point where it is better to assume that all plants out there could be infected and to treat them with care. Do not cut leaves or scapes without thoroughly cleaning your tools between cuts, do not divide hostas without thoroughly cleaning your tools between plants, do not dig, rake, or weed around hostas without cleaning your tools and always avoid tearing, cutting, or otherwise damaging leaves or roots.

Last edited by Chris_W on Jun 18, 2006 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There was an infected So Sweet and Striptease in one of the convention gardens... I explained the disease to the garden docents (friends of the owner), but didn't have the nerve to tell the owner on the day of the tours!

Beauty Substance has also been added to the list. This is another common import from Holland in the Sum and Substance family. Someone sent me a good leaf sample showing extreme HVX infection and they confirmed it came from Holland. Pretty soon I think we will see a lot of the Sum and Substance sports on this list, especially those that have been field grown from growers that are already selling diseased plants in other varieties.

Chris,
While looking up sports of group 1, I looked up Corona in Hugos database, he says it is a sport of Birchwood Parky's Pold, you say it is a sport of Sum & Substance. While both are on the NOT list Corona would never be on my want list, but I was just wondering, when a person comes across differing info, where would you look for confirmation, AHS?

Fran

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit..
Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad.
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